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Breaking Into Games Writing?
An anonymous reader writes "One of the biggest complaints I hear from 'discerning' gamers is how few and far between well-written games are. Titles like Mass Effect and the Black Isle series just appear far too rarely. Writing and storyboarding are aspects of the industry that have always appealed to me — I'm an enthusiastic hobby gamer with a real passion for well-developed games. But there's very little guidance out there on getting exposure as a writer in this world. I'm interested in working in the field, freelance/part time initially as I break in, then with an eye to professional employ after a time. My questions to you are: How can I get involved in writing for the game industry? Are there any game startups out there with good design but weak story that could use writing help from a college graduate? How do the big guys get people to write for them — am I just going to the wrong booths at the job fairs? What kind of degrees or relevant experience in the field are they looking for? Should I just put on my Planescape t-shirt and stand outside in the rain?"
Bioware has repeatedly had contests where they've asked the community to open up the NWN toolset, write some dialogue and send it to them. The proof is in the pudding.
And it should be noted that writing typical fiction or exposition is different from writing threaded dialogue in a game, hence that is why they ask people to submit basic mods made in their toolset.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Then buy a photocopier.
Then buy one of those automatic card shuffling machines.
Next, photocopy the cliche book and use the shuffling machine to introduce "originality" to your creations.
Seriously, WTF? What writing is there for games that isn't complete (literary, not computer-y) hackery? You're not exactly competing with Dickens. You're not even competing with Dick.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
I don't think the issue is so much that games companies can't find good writers, it's more they won't pay for it. So you get some designer/coder throwing shit together at the last minute.
Bioware is one company that I always seem to see writing positions open for... now whether you take that as a good thing or a bad thing I guess depends on your perspective. They usually have a written component that you can submit (ie an original story set in genre X or based on Bioware game X) which, they say, can override any educational qualification.
Austin, Texas
Edmonton, Alberta
Yes, believe it or not Bioware is actually a Canadian company.
I say don't drink and drive, you might spill your drink. Before you get behind the wheel just stop and think.
You get a job with a game company the same way you get any other job:
First, you find companies that actually do what you're trying to get into doing. Don't apply to companies that aren't using writers for their games if you want to be a writer for games.
Second, you put together your portfolio. In the case of games, you'll want to have some dynamic media - sketched storyboards (art shouldn't matter too much, so keep it simple), play or movie scripts, and/or, ideally, game mods that have your name in the writer: line.
Third, you have to work hard, get lucky, make friends, and generally be very nice to people who often deserve it but sometimes do not.
There are a billion other kids who want to write games and chances are that they are better than you.
It's like wanting to be a major sports figure. There are only 5000 people in major sports. The likelihood that you will be one of them out of the millions of other kids is slim and none.
Are you really that good? If you think you're not. then well, you're not.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Write. Write often. Then forget games and get into movies and television.
Planescape, while entertaining, isn't very highly regarded by many of my game-writing collegues.
Games and writing in games has moved on a great bit since PS:T and the skills required from a game writer today are different from back then:
- Ability to write in a short, very precise fashion while still maintaining character and flavor.
- Ability to write in a fashion that includes the user and gives him the illusion of choice.
- Ability to write scenarios that work for games, which means giving the user control and freedom to express himself within the framework of the story.
- Ability to keep scenario complexity in check.
People who want to write grand, long winded stories or novels don't need to apply.
My tip: Don't mention PS:T.
Now I do database programming. Better hours, better money. I use that money and free time to tinker with games.
I don't break into games writing. I lawfully gain access.
Some of the larger game publishers could learn a thing or two from Kingdom of Loathing. It's witty, engaging, and has a great development team who are constantly adding content. The best aspect, though, is that it's up to you whether you play casual or hardcore. I really appreciate that.
Light the blue touch-paper and retire immediately.
Whatever you do, DO NOT join up with some "game design" course. They are a complete was of time and money. You will learn how to make a script for Spongebob Squarepants, not Bioshock.
Writing for games definitely seems to be the one place a lot of developers are willing to half-ass completely. They don't seem to realize how ONE semi-competent writer could basically go through and make every line at least better than cringe-worthy.
Valve seems to get this. Look at Left 4 Dead, a game with a two word story (ZOMBIES! RUN!), and how much they actually focused on dialogue and characterization for these four random survivors. Portal, too. They hired a long time industry writer specifically for that game. They get it. A little good writing goes a long way.
The problem, I think, is how little it takes to go that extra distance. Games are not novels, not most of them anyway. The fact that it only takes one good writer to work over a story for entertainment value and consistency means that, for most games, the writer's market is microscopic.
However, I think one potential way to get involved in this aspect of the industry might be MMO quest design. MMOs generally rely on massive amounts of inordinately boring quests made interesting only by the addition of a few paragraphs of clever description. Here there's at least a demand for written content that will last beyond the game's first six hours. Bioware and Blizzard both had some promising quest-design job offerings in the past, although the postings usually vanish before I can read them.
Just get used to the idea of never really owning your material. That's one of the big hitches that I see with writing in the gaming industry. Once you write it, it's no longer yours. With films, there's the script, which someone owns and gets royalties on. With network series, I'm not exactly sure who owns what, but the writers are at least entitled to royalties when their work is used. As the Writer's Guild fought for recently.
I'm pretty sure the Writer's Guild hasn't touched the games industry. My understanding is that, with games, you don't own the writing unless your work existed before the game did and they pay you to use it, which is rare enough to be excluded to most non-bestselling authors.
Do a little research, see what the most popular/powerful end-user game toolset is right now (NWN2? Oblivion? Half Life?) and write a few mods.
At the very least you'll have some practice and something to put on your resume. If you're good maybe you'll get some attention. If writing turns out to be less fun then you expected, better to find out early.
Watch moderators waste their points on your post
In case you haven't figured it out yet, Anonymous Cowards always post at 0. Since a post can only go down to -1, only one point is required to squish your post. And plenty of people are now getting 10 points in a single round of moderation, which makes it even easier.
But thanks for playing!
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Try to find a Mod out there - one with a team who is actually building something - and pitch them a few missions, maybe a story vision.
:)
It's a little different writing well for a game, because you need to have you're fleshed out story-arc, which meshes with the gameplay, which can be brought in often enough that it moves the story forward, all without annoying the user. You're not writing a Novel, remember...
You'll probably get turned down at first at a lot of places (lots of people want to help with mods, but can't code/model, so they try to be writers...), but if you're actually any good then you'll find a crew.
Good Luck!
Should I just put on my Planescape t-shirt and stand outside in the rain?"
No, you should write your heart out and send it to as many people as possible. No degree in writing means anything if you can't prove you're what someone is looking for.
I personally would not hire anybody for a creative job if the main focal point of their application was a degree. That basically sends the wrong message.
The proof is in the pudding and like all games related jobs, see if you can get involved in open source projects first, so you have some direct prior work.
I record my sleeptalking
Submitter sounds like one of those people who moves to Hollywood wanting to become a star and end up whoring their asses to pay for snorting crank off of the sidewalk.
Do many of those people have the insight (and bravery) to ask how to do it on a board frequented by people who actually work in the industry (and trolls)? Is the submitter saying he's going to move to, er, gaming town USA? Does he sound like he thinks writers, even on videogames, get paid more than bread and water?
Hmm... Sounds like an AC is bitter at his utterly wasted life and hates the idea of a kid pursuing his dream job...
It's not that game developers don't want good writers...but they need writers who are willing to bend to all the quirks and problems of game development. Writing is easy compared to the work of creating art assets or programming. You'll find yourself having to revise and go off in different directions based on schedule restrictions and technical limitations. Your incredible plot point gets negated because it's deemed technically risky, and then you have to work around it without scrapping all the work that has been done so far.
In general, developers prefer to have decent writers who understand how games are made than to have amazing writers who have no clue.
I work at Bioware. The writers I know here got experience writing in various fields, such as novels. One guy was a storyboard artist on film sets.
With this company, another option is to get your foot in the door with an entry job. Come on as an editor or a level designer, and if you do well you'll have the opportunity to move in the company.
I don't speak for the company, this is just what I've seen and experienced myself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us#Game_transcript
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Interactive storytelling could be a way to show you talents, without dealing with hard-core programming.
Check out Storytron, a, interactive storytelling platform.
Others have mentioned just writing.
But for writing (and programming) a *game*, possibly writing a text adventure would be good practice. For example, using Inform (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inform), you can write games that practically anybody with any computer/PDA/etc. ever made can play.
I think there is still at least one yearly contest (with a relatively tiny prize) for the best interactive fiction game.
That's what writers do. Writers write. And then when they try to get jobs doing more writing, instead of just saying "I'm a good writer, honest! My mom thinks so!", they can say "Here are some samples of my work."
You don't have to pull the next Bioshock out of your pants but it wouldn't hurt to rustle up some sort of tool kit which does all the hard and boring work for you, anything from NWN or HL2 to World Forge to FRUA or some cheezy flash-based RPG maker you found on a Korean web site one night while on a squishee bender, and just write something. Even if you think it sucks, just do it. That's how you get better.
The problem is that the desire to do writing or design on games lives in just about every game developer out there. Some of them may be terrible at it, but they all want a chance to tell their story. So the opportunities to do this are all basically filled from within.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
> And plenty of people are now getting 10 points in a single round of moderation, which makes it even easier.
You can get 10 mod points!?
Ever since they raised the cap, I only ever get 15 at a time. When I'm logged in, of course.
The problem is not the writers, it's the structure in which they work. Games make part of the story unpredictable, through the player's choices. That's actually not such a problem; letting the player choose what to say and do just means more writing. The problem is when the player can choose who to talk to and who comes with him.
Game writers don't know which conversations will happen, when they'll happen, or which characters will be there when it does. NPCs that travel with the player can't say much because their lines have to be optional, and the player can't say much without it feeling forced. The people the player meets can say all they want, but they can only say it to the player, who is almost certainly a stranger to them. The result is a long series of monologues directed at the player, most of which will be skipped or skimmed. That sucks, even if the monologues themselves are top notch.
As a writer and designer currently in the game industry, let me show you my pokemons.
I started off writing and designing pen-and-paper role-playing games, and writing a column for RPG.net. This helped me build a portfolio and greatly expanded my contact list. When the time came to enter the video game industry as a writer, those samples and references helped me get in.
In my spare time I did as much writing and design as possible, in whatever areas I could get my hands on: news writing, graphic design, web design, and the creation of a fake fast-food franchise run by ninja named Ninja Burger ( http://www.ninjaburger.com/ ). Again, when the time came to get into video games, all that experience helped immensely. Design is design; writing is writing. The more you do of each, the better you get at it. I wrote about games, I designed games... I even co-wrote and co-designed a MUD ( http://www.iconoclast.org/ ), but my time spent designing church bulletins, editing news columns, writing copy for a comic book catalog and doing technical writing all helped me learn not just the ropes, but all the knots as well.
In the end, breaking in for me came down to being in the right place at the right time. A friend of mine worked for a game company, and she got me the interview, but at that point it was up to me to close the deal, and my portfolio, references and samples were what did that.
In short, you can't wait by the stream for the ship to come in. You need to build your own raft, and when the ship sails by, you need to paddle yourself out to it.
Get ready by reading some books on game writing and design. I've reviewed a bunch of them for Slashdot over the years:
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/25/0046222
http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/31/1445235
http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/05/1420215
http://books.slashdot.org/books/06/02/27/1445214.shtml
http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/18/149246
http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/09/0527214
is to be an excellent writer in general. Working for a game company should be an afterthought.
If you are really passionate about writing then you should have many examples of writing work that you have produced over the years. Perhaps you have written short stories or a few chapters of a novel? Perhaps you've written articles or technical documents? You will likely be somebody who reads a lot and gets inspired by great writing.
If you don't already have a general passion for writing then what are you really looking for? You are looking to work for a game company. That's all. You aren't looking to be a writer, you are looking to have the easiest job inside the most envied industry in the world.
Don't let me crush your dream. I hope you really do get a writing job at a game company, but thousands of people are in your position and most of them probably can't out-write a random programmer in a game company, let alone an experienced professional writer.
One of the biggest complaints I hear from 'discerning' gamers is how few and far between well-written games are. Titles like Mass Effect and the Black Isle series just appear far too rarely. Writing and storyboarding are aspects of the industry that have always appealed to me -- I'm an enthusiastic hobby gamer with a real passion for well-developed games. But there's very little guidance out there on getting exposure as a writer in this world. I'm interested in working in the field, freelance/part time initially as I break in, then with an eye to professional employ after a time. My questions to you are: How can I get involved in writing for the game industry? Are there any game startups out there with good design but weak story that could use writing help from a college graduate? How do the big guys get people to write for them -- am I just going to the wrong booths at the job fairs? What kind of degrees or relevant experience in the field are they looking for? Should I just put on my Planescape t-shirt and stand outside in the rain?"
You don't write well enough. Go re-read Strunk. You should be writing at least this well:
Well-written games are few and far between. Mass Effect and the Black Isle series do have good writing, but they're exceptions, not the rule.
Writing and storyboarding appeal to me. I'm an hobby gamer with a passion for well-developed games. But there's little guidance on getting into the game world as a writer. I'm interested in freelance/part time work as I break in, then professional employ.
How can I get into writing for the game industry? Are there game startups with good design but weak story? How do the big guys find writers? Am I going to the wrong booths at the job fairs? What degrees or experience are game companies looking for? Should I just put on my Planescape T-shirt and stand outside in the rain?
You need a tough English teacher, or a tough editor, to make you tighten up your prose.
In the past studios have tried going the "professional writer" route, and got stung pretty badly so there's quite the stigma against hiring professional writers in most studios. Today the common attempt is to find somebody in house with a bit of writing talent, and hand off the job to them. Depending on the writers (often there's quite a few) method works more than hiring a professional writer, but not enough to say it actually works. At least you're budget isn't hurt. Writing for games is no easy task and typical writers can't write for games. Too often they try to control the audience which will never work well in an interactive medium. There's also the problem of studio interference with ruins a project. Heads try to shape a project to their whimsical idea of what should happen yet they never stick around to actually hash out a complete idea then they come back 6 months later and wonder why everything is crap. I'm sure film has this same problem, but at least with film you can change things with relative ease. If you try changing something in a game all hell breaks loose. My advice is to break into the game industry, and after 7 or 8 months (or years) something might open up.
I got multiple job offers after writing Dreamcatcher, including Bioware. Valve also encourages people to develop mods, and have hired many of the more successful people.
That being said, being published in other areas can help as well, though I still feel that writing for games is a very different skill set than typical writing.
I make a simple web game and would love a good consistently funny writer. A writer who can write SHORT PUNCHY zingers, not the novelists referred to in comments above.
I keep posting on Craigslist, but can't find a writer who both "Gets it" and can constantly make me laugh. I've hired several people who send a wonderful sample, perfectly fitting my spec, but after that the quality tends to go downhill fast.
As a result, instead of a consistent style, the writing across my game is a patchwork of different writers edited together by me, the developer. (Yes, I require writers to surrender all rights and ownership of all writing I buy. Of course.)
I would love hire a good writer who can give me a few dozen lines of funny dialog every month or two. So far the best writing has come from my house-mate, free of charge, but he doesn't give me enough fresh content.
The game is www.brainchef.com
Anyone is encouraged to look at the format and then contact me in game (player #1, if you're a player of the game you'll find me easily).
This game is my hobby, so pay more like "pocket change" than "full time job" (again, see the comments above) but it's a great opportunity to get started as a professional game writer.
N7z
http://www.brainchef.com A fun free game
If you are as good of a writer as you think, write a book, hopefully it sells a couple thousand copies; maybe you can get some kind of award for it. Use that as your credibility to writing and i am sure you will get somewhere.
Every 6 months pyweek.org runs a game contest. Join forces with a team that has the programming side but needs someone for the story side of it.
Seems like it would be the perfect way to show off and hone you skills.
Sean
I'm in the minority who really digs a good plot but we are a sadly ignored lot. I should think the same thing holds true for movies and games -- make it good, make it funny, they will probably come. One of the early incarnations of Doom was going to have a huge amount of story, plotting, etc, and the disagreement with that dev was so strong he was booted from id. Now there are many who praise Doom as an amazing, ground-breaking shooter, even moreso than Wolf3D and it defined the genre, and this is true. But the very things that were left out of Doom were left out of Doom2 and all of the other knock-offs. I wasn't impressed by another shooter until Half-Life. Note that Half-Life 2 had no frickin' plot, or at least one worthy of the name. Half-Life 1 made you care if your Barneys survived, that's how good it was. Half-Life 2 made you with your squaddies dead because they got in the way and were a waste.
A personal fav of mine in the action world is Boondock Saints. Now there have been hundreds of violent crime movies out there, just movie after movie of forgettable crap. But that movie was great. The combination of great actors, great script, great pacing, it just made the whole thing enjoyable from start to finish. It's one of my all-time favs.
That being said, most movies get along just fine without a script. Transformers sprang fully formed from the ass of Michael Bay like some sort of scatological Minerva. It was the most god-awful combination of hackwork and derivative crap stealing from a dozen different movies, congealed and held fast only due to the compressive power of that fuckspat's colon. It's like a shit diamond. Not a whit of thought went into that movie and it yet it did extremely well at the box office.
If you don't have any connections to get you into the industry, the best thing you could probably do is start building your portfolio. The suggestion made above about making some dialog in the scripting tools the company provides is excellent. But more generically, start writing scripts in general. Put your ideas on paper, build worlds. If you can draw, put together some storyboards. If you can do computer modeling, any of the creative stuff they would need for the game, start creating examples there. People have been hired directly on account of the quality of work they've done with fan-mods. You get your foot in the door that way, then it's easier to say "hey, need any help with the script on this game?"
Just remember the following:
1) Odds are, you're not going to get hired.
2) If you get hired, this is an industry that chews up lives and shits out the remains.
3) If you think you're irreplaceable, check to see if your name is John Carmack. If it isn't, you're aren't. There's a thousand people in line begging for the chance to deal with the crap you're putting up with.
4) The games industry is a business and the bean-counters don't give a shit about art. You'll be shoving uninspired, insipid crap out the door because you have a ship date, nothing more. This is the sort of thing that makes you die by inches until there's nothing left.
So, good luck!
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
...Except that Black Isle isn't a series, it was a development studio. (BTW, Black Isle lead design Leonard Boyarsky is now working for Blizzard on Diablo 3... may be interesting.) I write frequently about this exact topic on my blog The Expensive Planetarium (www.expensiveplanetarium.com). There's so much focus on the quote "casual" gamer these days, and that word doesn't mean what it should to these people. Ideally, every game should be quick to learn, and difficult to master. Today it's "retarded to learn, retarded to master." Let Tetris DS prove this to anyone who doubts my claim. Even though Tetris was a "casual game" when it came out back in the 80's, it had incredible depth and is as much fun to play today. The latest incarnation, driven by the 'casual fury', 'Tetris DS' is seriously a goddamn joke. Not only do you have SIX count em SIX "Next" boxes, AND a little "reserve" box where you can swap out a piece that you don't like, but get this: you can perpetually spin the piece at the bottom and it will never lock as long as you keep hitting a button. I'm serious. So therefore, the speed of the level means nothing. Not only that but you cannot turn any of these features off.
Feeling a little over-appreciated, over-paid, work too few hours and work conditions too good?
"One of the biggest complaints I hear from 'discerning' gamers is how few and far between well-written games are.
Look, Sturgeon's Law applies to games writing as much as it does to Science Fiction. Perhaps even more so.
If you're interested in in raising the level of writing in games, then you'll need to find a company to work for that's interested in that too.
Just don't expect Sturgeon's Law to be violated any time soon.
I work in the industry. With cartoons, it's a director. With games, it's a games designer. Trust me on this one, companies hire when they see talent. Develop a portfolio, or "demo reel" and show that to companies. Some of the larger studios I've worked for have employed writers on a contract basis, but it sounds like you're talking more about shaping the look and feel of a game, and that's a game designer. So, show your creative side. Write stories. Develop your own board games, or RPG games, or Pokemon/Magic style card games. Put all this in your reel. Team up with an artist, and produce a few "one sheets", or a sheet of paper that demonstrates a game concept graphically, and verbally. Show that you can take a group of artists and programmers, and provide top level direction on exactly what they're producing.
Luckily YOU'RE not applying for the job either, with YOUR proper use of English...
We've published two books (already mentioned above) about how to break in, and how to do the job. Our mailing list is always an interesting place to talk about where games and writing intersect. The point is - there are quite a few people taking a look at this problem. It's just not as simple as it seems.
On the bright side, you didn't say "I want to be a game designer." That always had a touch of arrogance to it coming from anyone but an existing game designer. But in general, if a job seems like a dream job for you and 100 million other people, and there are no large barriers to climb, it is going to be hard to be taken seriously on passion alone. In a way, we programmers have it easy, since a few nice demos and good answers to hard questions are a quick way to get your foot in the door. So, even though I'm really speaking outside my experience here, my advice for an aspiring writer would be to find something that makes it immediately evident to your prospective employer that you have invested serious time and energy in something that wasn't all fun and bubbles. Case and point, I had a game interview where the interviewer was evidently delighted by the *lack* of 20 cute languages and web technologies on my resume. So, perhaps find an open source or local student game project?
As someone said, get a portfolio together to show companies. More importantly, follow how the coders get into the field: they write demo programs. Search around for opensource gaming projects which need a writer, and write for the opensource game. Make it good, and you can use that as a big feather in your cap to break into the industry. I suggest diving right in, too, rather than dipping your toes in with part-time stuff. Game developers make really good money. There's a Game Developer (I think that's the name) magazine too. I suggest you subscribe to that to get more insight into the industry. Also, look on usenet. People interested in coding for games talk on usenet, a LOT. Ask people there, and look for groups about game writing.
Wow.
PITA made me realize that ripping guts out is awesome in a video game.
It must be 100x better in real life.
Disemboweling I will go,
disemboweling I will go!
High ho the dairy o,
Disemboweling I will go.
One of my game designer colleagues (now a successful comic writer) suggested to use programs for storyboarding.
My colleague uses Dramatica http://www.dramatica.com/
but it seems Movie Magic Screenwriter is more suitable for movies/series http://www.screenplay.com/
There is also an open source alternative:
http://celtx.com/
These programs direct you in your writing, and are also able to suggest plots.
He strongly recommends that you MUST follow rules to write a storyboard.
These programs are perfect for forcing you to declare all interactions, and it also eases the addition of new characters.
Of course, the programs won't write the storyboard for you.
Find an appealing plot, then build some charismatic heroes.
Good luck !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us#Proper_translation
Seriously. The best games are cinematic because they borrow heavily from elements of cinema. Enroll in a film program. Learn to write, character development, storyboarding, and to shoot.
Then find an opportunity to use the skills in a game. The rest will come.
First, you have to get rid of the idea that writing a great game has anything to do with any genre, graphics, etc.
'Mass Effect' and 'the Black Isle' are decent, but they are not "great games". An example of a great game is Tetris. The income of Tetris and its various incarnations eclipse pretty much any other game, and yet its simplicity is one of its most appealing characteristics.
Tetris has true mass appeal... and you only need to write one game with that attribute to be set for life, be it extremely complex, or quite plain in the original implementation.
stuff |
Start writing! Be prolific and build your portfolio.
Then you have to learn how to pitch your stories. It's brutally hard -- but study a little philosophy and learn what gets and keeps peoples focus. The content is easy, VG entertainment is mostly escapism; the problem is that your best writing will come from writing what you know, which may not align with what interests other people, so just appeal to the fundamentals of human nature. Polish your silver tongue, weave a tangled web, then sell, sell, sell!
If I were hiring, I would hope to meet an inspiring individual who can capture my attention with their imagination.
I think you're going to the right places, but it sounds like you don't have self-marketing confidence.
Half my point here is: don't wait for someone to tell you to get involved -- just get involved. The rest of my point is that you need to SHOW your passion. You need to tell people some stories.
ZORK!
Gesundheit!
Get in to writing for a Comic Publisher.... it's got everything you need to position yourself for Games, Movies, Novels, TV Series, Cartoons.. did I say Movies? Yeah those too.
Comic books are full of short dialogue, they rely on storyboards (quite literally) to tell the other half of the story (just like movies and games) and yet each issue isn't a multi-million dollar undertaking so the barrier to entry should be much lower (they'll give you a chance many more times cause you won't be screwing up the big bang).
While you're writing for a comic book, you can team up with an artist and put together some good scripts for game mods, maybe a graphic novel or two and a screenplay.
When you've got something looking nice see if you can get it in front of the right people.
Always start at the top - find out the home address of the people you want it to be seen by - not the most famous person, the one who looks at these things critically. Mail it to them with some nice packaging and a good executive summary. Then follow up with an email or two.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
You gotta any samples bro?
http://www.polyglotstudios.com
But don't be thinking we're big-tiome, as we're also trying like Hell to get that big first break.
When you earnestly believe you can compensate for a lack of skill by doubling your efforts, there's no end to what you can't do.
(source: http://www.despair.com/incompetence.html)
I was at BlizzCon last month and noticed that Blizzard had set up a recruiting booth where people could go to talk to Blizzard reps and fill out applications.
World of Warcraft actually has some pretty good writing in places.
I recall some activity years ago, but haven't followed it or used them. If there were some good ones out there, you might be able to sketch out your own game.
I recall reading about some college classes using such to teach the basic elements of video game authoring. They were powerful enough that students could do something instructive and interesting in ten weeks.
Go grab Inform (v6 or v7, depending on your proficiency with C-type programming languages) or TADS, and write away. The community is small, but highly focused on excellent story, grammar, spelling, and originality. It's the easiest and least expensive way to display not only top notch writing skills, but also an understanding of the vast array of possibilities for user interaction with the world in modern games, and that you can write your way into and out of any situation that could occur.
If you are looking to build a portfolio to show off to prospective employers, I think there is no better way to build one than participating in one of many open source gaming projects out there. Obviously others have suggested mods and successful mods that have gained commercial interest, but this is a very tiny percent of all the mods made, and a fractional one of mods started. At least with an open source project posted on SourceForge or something else there is no chance of the project which you have invested a good deal of time and work into disappearing overnight as happens with many mod 'teams'. Not to mention the usual advantages of FOSS development.
;)
So, you might take a look around at what sorts of projects are available and prove to the gaming industry that you have what it takes to write for a game project. I happen to work on a TES: Daggerfall inspired project called DungeonHack and we are always 'hiring'.
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power. -- Mussolini
I must say so, even though I edited it and sold it myself. Written by two of the best game writers in the business, who have also written and sold a lot of film and TV as well. https://www.amazon.com/dp/158065066X Skip www.skippress.com
You could start your own game to put in your portfolio like the author of http://wittyrpg.com/ did.
IMO the best browser game ever http://wittyrpg.com
Most companies don't have a dedicated "writer". They have "designers" who happen to write dialog as well as handling their other duties ( making maps, building levels, specing monsters, scripting, etc.)
Designer is the second lowest paid position in the company, just above QA, and below production, sound, art, and programming. That is because there are a million kids who want to design, and are willing to work for free. Also, if you have a resume as a "game designer" there aren't really any other industries you can work in, whereas everybody else has other options.
Are you sure you want to do this?
To...uh...study their scripts, of course. Yeah.